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1930

Father Thomas Burke, O.P.

Reverend Robert Eaton

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FATHER THOMAS BURKE1 O.P. ')N PAMPHLETS ONE M . Bv THE REV. RDBERT EATON are produc.:.~ annually by the C. T. S. You Can- Help

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CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY C ATHOLI C TR U TH S O C I E T Y 72 VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W.I 72 VI CTORIA STREE T, LOND ON, S.W .l and at Liverpool, Manchest er, Birmingh am, Brighton, I Cardiff, Newcastle and D erby I L Selected Biographies

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B 11 Yen. Edmund Arrowsmith. By Rev. Fr. Goldie, S. J . 1 52 Yen. Dominic Barberi. By Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. FATHER.THOMASBURKE, O.P. 249 Blessed Robert Beilarmine. By Rev. J. Brodrick , S.J. 227 Monsignor Hugh Benson. By Rev. A. Ross. (1830-!883) 250 Bernadette of Lourdes. By Rev. C. C. Martindale, S.J . 26 Blessed .John Bosco. By lVIrs. Raymond Barker. 285 Bishop Challoner. By Canon E . H . Burton , D.D . BY REv, ROBERT EATON 42 Yen. Margaret Clitherow~ " 290 Cornelia Connelly. " 284 Father Damien (the Apostle of the Lepers). By E nid D innis. NICHOLAS ANTHONY BURKE was born in the city of 62 Galway on September 8, 1830, and was baptized on the " The English Martyrs. By Rev. J. Morris, S.J . " 234 The Eucharistic Congress and "The Beggar Woman of the IOth of the same month, the Feast of St. Nicholas of Blessed Sacrament." · Tolentino, after whom he was called, the name Anth~ny 283 Father Faber. By Wilfrid H . Woollen, M.A. being added because of his mother's devotion to that 66 Blessed .John Fisher. By Monsignor Cologan . saint. His parents, Walter Burke and Margaret Mac­ 207 Gemma Galgani. By F . M. Capes. Donough, were poor in this world's goods, but rich in 245 Pauline Marie daricot. By Enid Dinnis. virtue, and devoted themselves to the training of their 224 Lacordaire and Montalembert. children .. Walter Burke was a baker by .· trade, the 248 Yen. Paul Libermann. By Ethel Murray. "Master of the Rolls," as his son used to call him. An 189 Father Lockhart. ill-natured critic once pronounced Father Burke's 280 Cardinal Manning. sermons to be "flowery." "No wonder I am floury," 119 Bishop Milner. By Very Rev. Canon Burton, D .D . he replied, "was not my father a baker ?" 121 Blessed Thomas More. By Hon. Justice O'H agan. As a child, Nicholas was delicate but full of spirit, 125 Cardinal Newman. By Monsignor Canon Barry, D.D. and early showed that love of music and power of 128 Daniel O'Connell. By M. S. ·B. Malins. mimicry which later distinguished him. His fondness 262 Rev. E. Pernet (F ounder of the Little Sisters of the Assumption). for playing pranks and practical jokes more than once 270 Yen. Nicholas Postgate. got him into trouble, and he received in consequence 141 Ratisbonne Brothers. (From Synagogue t o Church). many severe chastisements from his mother, who re­ " 211 Fra Girolamo Savonarola. By Rev. H . Tristram . garded such corrective acts as sacred, and always " 149 Seven Founders of the Servite Order. began them with prayer. "Direct, 0 Lord, our actions, " 151 Yen. Robert Southwell. By Gilberte T urner. and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance," she " 254 Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (A Mystic in the H ome). would gravely say, to the terror of her delinquent son. 158 Yen . .John Thules. By Monsignor Gradwe ll~ " 281 Cardinal Vaughan. By Cecil Kerr. ~This biography is mainly based on-(1) The Life of Father Burke, by William J. Fitz-Patrick, F .S.A. ; (2) The Inner Life of Cardinal Wiseman. " 279 Fathe'Y Burke, by a Dominican Friar of the English Province; (3) Lectures and Sermons, by Father Thomas Burke, O.P . (P.M. Haverty, New York.) CATHOLIC TRUTH SociETY, 72 VICTORIA STREET, L ONDON, S.W. l :2 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P.

'"When I saw my mother enter the room, make the things that made a deep impression on me as a boy, was sign of the Cross, and solemnly invoke the light of the when· I stood in the chapel of Galway to see the g~eat Holy Ghost to direct her; I knew I could expect _no O'Connell coming to eight o'clock Mass in the morr:mg, mercy," said Father Burke ; " I never got such a beatmg kneeling amongst us, and receiving Holy Commumon ; as that directed by the Holy Spirit, and I have never to watch him absorbed in prayer before God ; almost forgotten it." At times, by way of variety, the word to read the grand thoughts that wer~ passint? through "direct" was changed to "prevent." " But it never that · pure mind; to see him re~ewmg ag~n?- before did prevent," adds Father Burke, "down the lash always Heaven the vows that bound him to reltgwn and came." country." . . From his bovhood; Nicholas was wonderfully ob­ It is also probable that the Insh famme. of r847 servant and entered heartily into· his studies. He was helped to fix his mind and heart on the pr~esth~od . early sent to school in Galway under Brother Paul The scenes he witnessed deeply impressed his Imagma­ O'Connor, of the Brotherhood of St. Patrick His tion and filled him with serious thoughts. " I have veneration for this holy man may be gathered from his seen," he tells us, " strong men lie down in the stre~ts , own words: "Amongst the proudest recollections of my and, with ashy lips, murmur a last cry. for food,. and famt life is that I was monitor in Brother Paul's school, and away and die. I have se.en the dead mfant lymg on the that month by month I went to him to answer ~he breast of the dead mother as she lay by the wayside. inquiry, 'whether I had attended my monthly confessiOn I have seen the living infant trying to draw from the and communion,' and how he taught me that, next to breast of the mother who was dead sustenance for its the God that made me, I should love the old land of infant life. 0 God, in Thy mercy, let me never again my birth." see such sights ! If I were to live a thousand years, ·Thence he was sent to a school kept by Dr. O'Toole, never could I banish them from my memory or shut where . owing to his retentive memory and great dili­ them out from my eyes-no, nor th~ir dir~ eff~cts. gence,' he made . rapid progress. Some c;onsidered that The storm at length passed away, beanng on Its wmgs his love of joke and fund of wit were such as to preclude millions of Irish victims and exiles, and leaving Ireland the possibility of a vocation; but a sound spirit of stunned by the greatness of her ruin. There seemed no praCtical piety underlay his exuberant spirits. !~ough hope for the nation. Ruined homesteads, abandoned a wild boy, he knew where to draw the hne, and It IS not villages, , impoverished towns, . workh<:n~ses fil.led to surprising that his more intimate companions were con­ overflowing, prisons crowded With pohtlcal pnson~rs, vinced he was destined for the priesthood. " Here now hospitals unable to hold the victiJ?s of cholera wh1ch is Father Nicholas for you !" his grandmother had came in the wake of war and famme ; trade and com­ exclaimed at his baptism, and that he might eventually merce destroyed, industry paralysed, a populati.on be a priest was his mother's constant prayer. wasted by disease and privation, scarcely able to reahze A severe attack of typhoid fever, at about the age of life after such awful contact with death, and crushed by fourteen, was the crisis in his life. For days the is'sue separation from so many loved hearts." . was. extremely doubtful, and, · on recovering, Nicho~as This event and its consequences thus graphically determined to devote his remaining years to the service described had, we feel sure, their part in sobering It of God alone. is interesting to learn that the example young Burke's mind ~ and fixing his thoughts on the of Daniel O'Conn,ell had a share in developing his priesthood. From h1s boyhood h~ had bee.n un~er \iqcation. " He contributed largely to make a priest Dominican influences, and the umon of · active with of ·me,'; · Father Burke once said, " for amongst the contemplative work in that Order attracted him forcibly. 4 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. 5

The generous sacrifice of his pious parents he th~s became possessed, in October, l85o, of Woodchester beautifully describes : " I think of the old woman. m Convent, near Stroud, with Father Augustine Proctor Galway who had no one but me, her only son; I thr_nk as prior and novice-master. "Unaccustomed as he {)f the old man, bending down towards the grave, wrth had long been, owing to the disturbed state of the the weight of years upo~ him ; and I think of ~he poverty Province, to the life of regular observance_, Father that might stare them m the face when therr only boy Proctor's ideas of the regime adapted to novrces were was gone : and yet no tear was shed ; no word of sorrow -strict in the extreme, in spite of the real kindliness of was uttered ; but, with joy and pride, they gave up his externally tugged nature. He himself . was ~n their only son to the God that made him." .. admirable example to all, and kept the rule m all 1ts Being accepted as a postul<:nt_ of th~ Domrmcan bare austerity; but his strictness was certainly in excess Order Nicholas started for Perugra mthe wmter of l847, of that of Santa Sabina in Rome, though the common passir{g through Rome and Assisi on. the way. _He opinion about it is much exaggerated and ·has per­ was kindly received by Father Massettr, then Novice­ petuated a totally wrong impression of this heroic ~nd Master, and was clothed " in St. Dominic's white wool " saintly man_" With a view, therefore, to puttmg on December zg, l847, receiving in religion the name of matters ihto a satisfactory state, the Master-General, Thomas, after St. Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor. Father J andel, paid a visit of inspection to Wood­ Though often " penan_ced " . for bre~king _the ~ule of chester in the August of r85r. "This is all very well," silence and for whistlmg hrs favounte Insh airs, he he said, as the result of what he found, " but you are passed admirably thro~gh t~e novitiate as. his nov~ce- not living according to the spirit of St. D_ominic. _I . master attests, " showmg himself dev?ut m practices will send you a young man from Santa Sabma who IS {)f piety, attentive in choir and the service~ qf the a~tar. thoroughly competent :to expound the Constitutions." He was ever lively and joyous, and kept h1s compamons This "young man" was Brother Thomas Burke, ~ho -cheerful by his healthy conversation and pleasant was now appointed pro-novice-master of the Enghsh stories." . · nrovmce.• I During his two years at Perugia, he g~ined a th?rou&h ' In r85l, therefore, Brother Burke left Rome for mastery of Italian. Shortly after his professiOn m England, " attired more like a smuggler than a fr~ar." January,. l849, he received minor Orders from Pope The money allowed him for his journey was insufficient, Leo XIII, then Bishop of Perugia, and went to the and he reached London penniless. While sitting at Convent of the Minerva at Rome to begin his studies. Paddington, cold and faint, thinking of Rome and the He now made his first acquaintance with the Summa of convent he had left there, a porter, to whom he ex­ St. Thomas, · a book that he loved and knew most plained his case, thrust a hunch of bread with a bit of intimately. "When reading the Summa," he said, herring under his nose, saying : " Here, poor devil, eat " one's faith seems lost in vision, so clearly does every that !" At last he_thought of one of the Fathers of the point stand out." London Oratory, whom he knew slightly, and from In Rome at this time he met Cardinal Wiseman, whom he received means to finish his journey. The who was much struck by him. " That young man," railway did not then, as it does now, go beyond Stone­ he said, " has a wondrous power of inspiring love : he house, some miles from Woodchester, and a long walk will be a great priest some day." still awaited him. When at length he reached the Vve must now turn our attention to England, which convent; the Prior had retired to rest, and the new­ was soon to be the scene of Father Burke's labours. comer was taken for a robber. "Nay; I am Brother The English Dominican Province, now· resuscitated, Thomas from Rome," he said: The door was then· 6 Father ThQ_rnas Burke, O.P. ·I F.ather Thomas Burke, O.P. ·7 opened ;. and he entered on his new sphere of work, ignorance on religious . subjects prevailed. With one October 4, r8sv . I farmer in particular he had many· a talk, and j'ust as he His. position was certainly not one to be envied. A hoped that some impression was being made the farmer young. and in~xperienced man, sent by the General to said, "Yea, friend, but be the Bible true ?" Further mould the community in the ways of regular observance. discussion seemed hopeless. he was naturally regarded with some suspicion by In addition to this and his work with the novices, Father Proctor. Both, indeed, loved the rule, but each Father Burke was still studying theology under Dr. looked at it from a different point of view. Father Pozzo, then ,regent of studies at Woodchester, with a Proctor aimed at exact observance according to the ~ view of taking his degree as " Lector/' at the same time • It letter: .Brother Burke, too, aimed at exact observance, ' reading much general literature. is said, indeed, but as interpreted by Father J andel and the advocates that, though, except when going to class, his theology of observance abroad. In a word, they did not under­ was rarely seen in his hand, he always knew the lesson, stand each other. having diligently studied the Summa in Rome; and The young novice-master felt this keenly, but per­ at his Dejensio in universa theologia on August 3, r854, severed in his task, and met with some measure of success. he acquitted himself admirably. Though strict with his novices, so that . the weekly Before the end of that year, r854, Dr. Russell, then chapter of faults made them tremble, he was loved by head of the Irish Dominicans, recalled Father Burke to them, and they keenly relished his exquisite · daily Ireland, there to found a novitiate and house of studies. exhortations. "He was quite at home with us," writes. He had been only three years at Woodchester, but so one of them " and seemed to understand us so well, and deeply had he made his mark, that to this day his very we revered ~nd loved him in the most genuine manner. " form seems familiar, and time cannot obliterate his In r8sz Brother Burke was ordained sub-deacon and presence or his work. deacon at Oscott by Bishop Ullathorne, and shortly The Irish novitiate had hitherto been at San Clemente, after went to Galway on a visit to his parents. The in Rome, but for many reasons it was advisable to have tonsure was not then worn in Ireland, and one day as he one in Ireland, and Tallaght, seven miles from Dublin, was standing deacon at High Mass, some one exclaimed, a place of great historical interest, 'was chosen for the "What a shame to let that young man officiate, just purpose. Father Burke arrived there early in r855, after putting the fever off him !" to begin a work similar to that which he had so ably On returning to Woodchester, he seemed more accomplished at Woodchester. An admirable descrip­ accustomed to his· work and brighter in his spirits. tion of him at this period is given by Father Power, O.P., He now begari to preach, but his early efforts gave no one of his novices : " I can never forget," he writes, " the promise . of the future orator. " He wrote out his impression his ascetic appearance made upon me as he sermons carefully, word for word, and took great pains entered the parlour to greet me and three other postu­ in preparing them. ·He used to preach with his . eyes lants for the Order. His tall, graceful, and attenuated shut, and showed great timidity. He would rehearse figure, ~is stern, rigid face shaded by the cowl over his his discburse before. others, and. then ask them what to head, h1s hands folded under his scapular, and the deep, change, and with childlike doCility took their advice." sonorous voice, all presented to my gaze the living image On Holy Saturday, March z6, r853, he was ordained of ~ _vigorous ascetic Dominican. On our way to the priest by ":l;k Burgess, ~ishop oJ Clifton, and next·day nov1hate, he turned round to the thinnest lad in the said his first Mass <1-t Woodchester. · He now took charge group, and said, 'My: boy, we mu'st !feel:l ym{!' 'in-' our of the:neighbou~~ing . rni$$ion of N ympsfielct where . great recreations he was buoyant and enthusiastic, ·but ·no 8 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. 9

one could be more severe if he saw the least deliberate . Mulooly, O.P., was at this time busy with his ex­ neglect or violation of rule. Daily he addressed us in · , cavations ·and discoveries at San Clemente. He and homilies on the spiritual life and the spirit of St. Dominic. Father Burke were warm friends, and the subter­ each of them a masterpiece of touching eloquence." ranean church seemed to have an equal interest for them The neighbourhood of Tallaght at this time was in a both : nothing, indeed, gave Father Burke greater state of great spiritual destitution, and Father Burke, pleasure than to show visitors over it. Towards the . by his simple, earnest preaching,· and above all by his ·end of his stay in the eternal City, he was talk~d of f~r example, infused fresh life into the place, and before the post of Coadjutor Bishop of the Port of ~pam .. Th1s long even daily communicants were to be seen, and a I was the first, but by no !]leans the last, b1shopnc for larger ciborium had to be purchased. He preached I which he was proposed, but to his great joy he escaped often, and all felt his power. He was surnamed them all, and lived and died a simple friar. He c~mld " Savonarola," and soon began to attract wide attention. already plead ill-health as an excuse, for the .pamful In September, r85g, he preached his first famous sermon, disease, which at length killed him, had asserted 1tself. on Church Music. I It was said that an unknown He returned to Ireland at the end of r867, and the mine had been discovered, and from that day to the end following year gave a large mission at Lincoln's Inn of his life he was ever fulfilling the ministry of preaching. Fields in London. His confessional was crowded, and Of the next five years (r85g-r864) there is nothing he described the severity of the strain by saying that it special to record. He preached frequently and gave wore threadbare two pairs of Blarney cloth garments · many retreats, sometimes even twelve in a year; and in which he had just bought. these was heard to especial advantage, for they were In May, r86g, the remains of Daniel O'Connell w~re marked by an exquisite adaptation to the special needs removed to the crypt beneath the tower at Glasnevm, of those whom he addressed. In r863 he gave two and Father Burke, now at the height of his fame, pro­ successful missions in Sheffield arid Manchester, and was nounced the oration on the occasion in the presence of made Prior of Tallaght. . In r864 the first stone of the some fifty thousand spectators. It occupied two hours new convent at Tallaght was laid, and Father Burke in deli very, and is one of his finest efforts. I The preached on the occasion ; but before the end of the moment it was over, without waiting to receive the year he left for Rome, having been appointed Rector of thanks of all, he hurried to the hospital to attend a poor San Clemente, He quite expected not to preach again widow who wished to see him before she died. He for three years, but thought "he would get into the walked the hospital wards, eagerly scanning each bed, pulpit from time to time, when the church was closed, and was about to enter another room, when he heard a and bawl a bit, just for ' auld lang syne.' " In r865, feeble voice utter his name. She was so emaciated that however, Cardinal, then Doctor, Manning, was sum­ he had failed to recognize het. " Father," she said, moned to England to the death-bed of Cardinal " I waited for you !" He gave her the last Sacraments, Wiseman, in the midst of his course of sermons in the and she died in his arms. Church of Sta. Maria del Popolo; and Father Burke The Vatican Council began in r87o, and the Bishop undertook to complete the course. He also preached of Dromore selected Father Burke to accompany him the Lenten conferences at Sta. Maria dei Monti as his theologian. While in Rome he preached in. Sta. and Sta. Maria degli Angeli, in the Corso. Father Maria del Popolo, and attracted large congregations. Again he was talked of to be Coadjutor Archbishop of I " Music in Catholic Worship" : (Sermons and Lectures, p. 3:t:t). ' I See Sermons and Lectures, p. 34. I\) F.ather /T.homas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. II

San Francisco. It is amusing to find that Father s'aloon passengers, accepted only on condition t~a:t' the Burke _attributed his _escape from this dignity to his steerage- should be allowed to be present. Indeed, he habit of mimi<;ry. One evening, so the story goes, the ;;pent the greater part of his time with them, cheering Bishop of Dromore deprecated his exuberance of spirits the emigrants and encouraging all to be true _to the as unworthy of the priestly dignity. " If it were not 'faith in their new home across the Atlantic. . for this blemish," he said, " there is no distinction to On arriving ·in America, he worked for some weeks which your talents would not entitle you." Father _as " visitor " in the convents of Kentucky and Ohio. Burke replied, " I have often heard you, my lord, ex­ Though he shr;mk. from all public notice, the country press regret that you had ever been made a bishop. If soon rang with the fame of his eloquence, and his name you had followed my example, and had a little more was on the lips of all. In March,- I8J2, he gave three fun in you, that burthen would· never have been laid lectures, and preached the Lenten discourses at the upon you." The Bishop and his theologian returned Church of St. Paul in New York:· This large edifice to Ireland before the conclusion of the Council, after . was quite unable to hold the crowds that flod:ed to an absence of seven months. In June, I8Jo, Father hear him; labourers going direct from their work, Burke was appointed Sub-prior of St. Saviour's, Dublin, carrying their dinner-cans, merchants coming from and preached a triduum to celebrate the dogma of the business to hear him-in fact people of all classes, Pope's Infallibility. · eagerly waiting until the doors were opened. Four or The following year (r871) was a specially busy orre for five hours before a sermon or lecture, every place was him: in the course of it he gave 21 retreats and preached filled and the approaches besieged by crowds seeking for IJ2 sermons. As each retreat lasted seven days and-he admittance. The calls upon him were incessant, and pre<).ched four times each day, his aggregate amounts to he satisfied all he could, while not' neglecting the main 760 sermons for that one year. In this year, too, he object of his visit. r One morning two nuns sat in the was summoned to Ghent to attend a General Chapter of parlour of St. Vincent Ferrer's, New York, . waiting the . Order for the revision of the Constitutions. He patiently until they could catch Father Burke as he was soon to visit the convents of the Order in America, passed out. At last he came, hurried a:nd pressed, and and preached a series of farewell sermons in Dublin, could only say: "No, no, Sister, I cannot do it." _They concluding with a visit to his aged parents in Galway, burst into tears and said: "Well, it is the will of God, to receive from them what might prove to be but we are very poor." Father Burke at once replied, a last blessing. His father, indeed, died before he " There, that will do, Sister, I will try to manage it." retprned. And of course he did. Father Burke's visit to America constitutes the most An amusing anecdote is told of a difficulty he had busy and glorious period of his life, and the way he in giving one of his lectures in New York. There passed through it shows how deep was his grounding was a private door to the platform of the lecture hall, both in virtue and in learning. All the past seems but but Father Burke, forgetting this, tried to make his way a preparation for it. He expected to be absent only a few weeks, but did not return to Ireland for nearly r In the volume of Sermons and Lectures, we have six sermons eighteen months. He purposely selected a vessel with preached in the month of March, 1872, viz. :• " The. ·Catholic a large number of steerage passengers, and, to their great Church the Mother of Liberty" (March 3rd), "Th~ -. <;a;tholic Church, the Mother and Inspiration of Art " (Mar,ch ; :lOth), joy, had free access to . them and heard upwards of " Panegyric of St. Patrick " (March 17.th), '.' The Christian Man, three hundred confessions on the voyage. He preached· the Man of the Day" (March 22hd), "The Groupings of to them many ti!Ues, and being asked to preach• to the Calvary" (March 24th), "Christ on Calvary". (March '29th).

• I2 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. through the crowd at the main· entrance. ~fter being to it. Mr. Froude had a brilliant reputation : he was jostled about for some time, he got hemmed m between bold, plausible, and a consummate master of English some pillars and a big Irishwoman. At length he ~ style. Moreover he came with his lectures already said : " My good woman will you let me get past you ?" composed, having had both leisure and resources for "Don't bother me," was the reply; " are better you their preparation. Father Burke, who was a~ked to than any one else?" "Well," said Father Burke, I undertake the reply, had, little time for preparatiOn and "there won't be any lecture if I can't get in; I'm I" only such books as. were lent him, and was, ~oreov~r, Father . Burke.~' " You, Father Burke," she exclaimed sadly out of health. " I have no books here, he sa1d, disdainfully, giving him a thrust with her elbow, " go " and no time to get up the subject." A friend gave to the devil ! " him the run of a well-stocked library, and 4:or some days. The strain of overwork was beginning to tell upon Father Burke devoted himself to this unexpected task, him, · and in the summer of r872 an attack of and then felt ready for the fray. ' _ hcemorrhage of the lungs necessitated a period of rest. The issue must be briefly told. Public opinion was. For many weeks past, he had frequently pr~ached excited, and the result of the controversy watched with three times in one day, and in churches some d1stan~e interest by all. In five lectures Father .Burke ably and apart. "Tired is not the word," he had to confess m courteously refuted Fronde, and vindicated Ireland's describing his state; " I can only compare my case to claim to the sympathy of all lovers of freedom. The Ned Burke's dog during the famine : they had ~o lectures were delivered in the Academy of Music, New support his back at the wall to enab~e him to bark." York in the month of November, r8Jz, to audiences of But his rest was a short one, and m September he five thousand people. And now · the ovations with addressed at Boston an audience of 40,000 people, the which Father Burke was everywhere received, reached largest ever assembled in the New World. He also the ears of the Vicar-General of the Dominicans, Father visited St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland, and many other Sanvito,r and he, fearing for the humility of his subject, towns. In New Orleans he gave four ·lectures and a bade him return to Ireland. During his stay of eighteen most successful mission: so large were the congrega­ months in America, besides performing his duty as tions, that he had to address them in the open air from "visitor" Father Burke had given four hundred the steps of the Cathedral. Everywhere he was received lectures,' exclusive of sermons, the proceeds of wl:ich with enthusiasm. The people of the New World appre­ amounted to nearly £8o,ooo, and were devoted to reheve ciated him to the full and he himself said he could churches and convents from debt, and to endow never speak elsewhere 'as in America. " In Columbia charities and hospitals. He loved America and felt . I am a free man, and will speak my soul." at home with its people. " If ever a voice," . he said, But his greatest achievement was yet to come. Mr. " shall tell me to return into your midst, it will fall Froude had arrived in America to give the lectures most welcome upon my ears. I recognize the greatness embodied in his work: The English in Ireland. He had of a priest's mission in this land-to work with such come, as he said, to appeal to an American jury for a men as surround me here. How joyfully would I verdict in justification of England's occupatiOn of lend myself and my labours to the building up in this Ireland and of her administration of the affairs of that land of a glorious future for Catholic Irishmen ! " country. Had he been successful or unopposed, the result would have been to sow dissension between 1 Father Jandel died in 1872, while Father Burke was in Anglo-and Irish-Americans. Yet to refute him was no America. Father Burke held him in great veneration and easy task, and there was nobody in the country equal undertook to preach at a Requiem sung for him at New Orleans, but was too ill to do so. 14 Father. Thomas Burke, O.P. Father. Thomas Burke, O~P. 1,5.

On the 7th March, r873, Father Burke reached Ireland, her true knight, her faithful and loving spouse. No man and was received with enthusiasm. The people knew and is so cpnsecrated to his fellow-men as the priest, because valued his work on their behalf in America, and hailed he comes to them with a consecration from God. There him with gratitude. The town officials, ~lerg~, and chief is no man upon ·. whom the people can rely as they can inhabitants· of Queenstown went to recetve htm, and as upon the priest ; . for, no matter what pestilence may he stepped ashore a tremendous cheer arose, w~ich was 1v hover in· the midst of them, every man may fly, the priest followed by an address. Father Burke was qmte over­ I alone, must not, dare not, cannot fly, because he is sold come, and, having knelt to receive the bles~;ng of J?r. to God and to his neighbour. His life is a God-like life: Russell, O.P., rose to reply. " I suppose, I:e sa:d, his profession is an angelic profession." " I am expected to say something." Here hts vmce " I never saw him," writes Bishop 'Brownlow, " out faltered and tears rolled down his cheeks. After a few of his religious habit, and to me he wa,s always the Domini­ moments of silence he resumed : " I can't say anything : can friar first of all. His wit, his varied information, don't ask me-for God's sake, don't ask me ! I am in his marvellous powers as a linguist, his exquhite taste the presence of Him at whose altar I serve. I have and tact, his intense delight in music and poetry, all reached the land I have been longing for. I can ;;ay these seemed to me to be in him perfectly subordinated no more." .Thus closed his American career-a tlme to his character as a priest and a monk.". Speaking of of triumph indeed, but of hard, incessant work, and Tallaght, which grew under his hand, Father Burke he returned much broken in health, to face ten more said: "What I have been quietly aiming at all along is years of toil and pain. to make this convent a place of holiness and learm:ng, for We may pause here to take a cl?ser view of Father prayer is the most necessary of all things for a priest." Burke's inner life and character whtch deserve a careful His whole life portrayed the truth of the saying, "We study. We are attempting ~ difficult task,. for his must practise before we preach." "All the preaching inner life was so many-sided that few knew htm fully, that ever yet was spoken," he said, "never convinced and "his deeper thoughts he gave to heaven." a single man, never converted a single soul, never made The world may speak of Father Burke. ~s a good one Christian, unless the man who spoke was a living theologian, an eloquent preacher, a bnlhant con­ illustrator of the word." His exact observance of the versationalist a wonderful mimic ; but those who knew strict rule of his Order was most marked and constant. him best and, cherish his memory with affection, l?':e to No matter how fatigued he was always present at remember him as a saintly priest and a true ~ehgwus. early matins, and lazy rising he considered the cause Herein lay the secret of his success and vast mfluence of half the tepidity in the world. He never omitted his for good ; by this he was protected fr?m any harm morning meditation, and used to say that, if faithful to arising from the praise which men so lavtshly bestowed this, we should enjoy all other duties and pleasures upon him : and this is the side of his character th;~.t has twice as much. In a word, " we may take him . as a been much kept out of sight. He put before ~tmself model of what a religious ought to be-humble, obedient, a high ideal of his vocation, and daily str~>Ve to hve up patient, forbearing, kind, and a lover of his rule." 1o it. Never did he preach more beautifully th~~ at Perhaps the most striking of Father Burke's virtues clothings of novices or when treating of the rehgwus was his deep humility, with its never-failing companion, life and state. " How careful must be the training of simplicity. It was the virtue he loved most, and especi­ the Levites," he said, " whose feet are to tread in the ally strove to instil into his novices. Knowing that it sanctuary and whose hands ,are to ~ouch the Lord. was exposed to great danger, he ever kept its necessity The priest must be the Churchs champwn and defender, before his mind, sought eagerly for opportunities of r6 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. I7 practising it, and indeed devoted his whole life to its the end of his life ; but for five years before his death he attainment. He keenly realized that if he built on his never allowed himself even this indulgence. fame and the passing praises of the hour, his spiritual It need hardly be said that to our Blessed Lady fabric would crumble to ruin. Of his great . sermons and the Rosary he had a special devotion .. Three he spoke as "mere thunder and turf," and, though as a ,,..Hail Marys" formed the immediate preparatwl_l for rule they were badly reported in the papers, he never his sermons, and never did he preach more touchmgly troubled to revise or correct them. His humility it was than on Mary's dignity and prerogatives. There was that chiefly impressed those with whom he came in con­ a ring in his voice, a pathos in his tone, when he spoke tact. "Though praised on all sides," writes one," I never of " the holy Mother of God," which made all feel that saw a more completely humble man. In no one could she was indeed his mother and he her devoted client. a contempt of this world and its honours have been We cannot refrain from quoting the beautiful climax more deeply rooted." He would read over his sermons to one of his sermons on the Immaculate Conception : 1 to his novices and say, " Will that do ?" On his way " 0 Mother mine ; 0 Mother of the Church of God ; 0 to the pulpit he would request a few" Hail Marys," that Mother of all nations ; 0 Mother who kept the faith "he might not make a fool of himself." He had. the in Ireland, that through temptation and suffering never greatest dislike of hearing his sermons praised. A nun lost her love for thee-I hail thee ! As· thou art in once ventured to do so, and he gravely replied, "Are heaven to-night, clothed with the sun of Divine justice, you not afraid to tell me that?" and to another who with the moon reflecting all earthly virtues beneath expressed pleasure at one of his· discourses he said, thy feet, upon thy head a crown of twelve stars, God's "The devil told me that three times already." "Be brightest gift, I hail thee, 0 Mother !" And speaking as humble as a door-mat and as pliable as porridge," of the Rosary, he said, " I could sleep without the least was his advice to one about to enter the religious state. fea:t; on the crater of Vesuvius, if I had our Lady's His last act at night was to kneel at the Prior's knee to rosary in my hands." His beads were never from his obtain his blessing. His religious brethren, who knew side by day; he wore them round his neck at night, and him best, testify to his complete self-abnegation, and it was a common saying among his novices, " There say the one thing that could bring a cloud to his face goes Father Burke with his stick and his rosary !" His was to single him out in any way for distinction. last words before he died were, " Help of Christians, Father Burke's obedience, too, was most remarkable. pray for us !" . In one of his retreats he said, "The truly obedient To the crucifix also he had a tender devotion. There religious can say at Judgement: 'Lord, the sins com­ was at Tallaght a very beautiful Spanish crucifix. mitted before profession, by it have been effaced, and Father Burke, shortly before his death, showed it to a since, acting under obedience, I am not responsible for friend, saying, " When my pain is very bad I crawl my actions,' and Christ will close the book and say, down here and stand before it, and look at it, and say 'Thou art right; for thee there is no judgement.' " His to myself, ' What are my sufferings compared with spirit of mortification is shown in part by his careful His ?' " It was from this source and from his great observance of the rule of his Order, though other in­ devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, before which he stances are not wanting. Often he would preach for would remain for hours in prayer, that he drew his over an hour in Dublin, and then return to Tallaght with­ wonderful patience under suffering. Often at recrea­ out any refreshment, that he might observe the fast of tion with his novices, while narrating some amusing the Order. He was very fond of smoking, and to smoke would have eased the agonizing pain he suffered towards r See Sermons and Lectures, p. 285. r8 Father .Thomas Bu.rke, O.P. Father Thomas · Burke, O.P. rg

story, ~e was ~eized with violent pain, and from the. so genial and natural a-way that·virtue became attrac­ e~pr~sswn. of his face one would imagine a sword were tive to those who had before shrunk from it, and religion piercmg his body; yet no word of complaint was heard seemed full of cheerfulness and joy when spoken of by and when he recovered a little he would say, " Oh, one who was himself so cheery and joyous. thanks be to Thee, my God!'' and then make some It was, however, by . his retreats that he specially quaint remark that made every one laugh. drew souls to God and left lasting impressions for good. No truer portrait, however, of Father Burke can The object of a retreat is thus beautifully stated by him : be give? than he h~~self. has furnished in speaking "You have come here to hear what you are, what of S:ardmal Cullen. Am1dst all .the high duties and your destinies are, what are the designs of the God who prais~s that surrounded him, the man of God still made you, and by what means you are to fulfil the remamed the gentle, meek, humble ecclesiastic. Learn­ grand purpose for which you have been created. You ing in him, yast though it was, awoke no spirit of in- • have come to resolve, with the blessing of God, to rise telle~t.ual p~I~e ;. hon~urs aroused no complacency or in thought, in hope, in desire, aye, and in the very . ambition; .mJunes stirred up no anger or revenge. practice of life, to all that God intends you to be. ~ ' ~evo~ed still to constant prayer, fasting, and mortify­ We are indebted to Bishop Brownlow for this account mg his se~ses, .h: not only retained the purity of his of one of Father Burke's retreats :-" My recollections soul,. the SimphClty and truthfulness of his spirit, the of Father Burke," he writes, "date from October, r864, manlmess and honesty of his character ; but continued when he gave a retreat of ten days to the students of to grow daily in the love of God, in death to self in the English College, Rome. I have got the notes of humility, gentleness, and meekness. Labour and 'toil that retreat now. It was admirable in arrangement, he cheerfully accepted; honours and dignities he as. solid in its matter, clear and precise in its theology­ carefully put away from him." every point resting on a definition of St. Thomas-full Father Burke had a great love for children and seemed of happy and telling quotations from Holy Scripture, perfectly at home with them. Often he was found amus­ with every now and then a burst of tender piety or an ing them and sharing their play: " I am always happy," appeal to every noble and generous sentiment in the he said, "when I am with a little child." The poor, too, young clerics whom he was addressing. Sometimes, if had a great attraction for him, and he considered the he saw us looking drowsy in the afternoons, he would soundest piety was to be found amongst them. In ac­ cheer us up, and rivet our attention by some anecdote cepting invitations to preach he always gave preference or graphic sketch of incidents that might happen to to the poorer parishes, and has been known to preach for us in our future priestly life. Some thought his ideal a poor mountain-parish when a neighbouring prelate of the life of a priest too highly pitched, but it was what vainly wished for him in his cathedral. He dearly loved he had set before himself, and he could hold up no holy pov:rty, and said his mission was for the poor. lower model to those whom he directed." Indeed, As a director of souls he was somewhat strict but his the only · thing he really valued was a beautiful soul, ~onfessional was always crowded. He had ~ special and by no process are souls so truly or so quickly mfiuence over men, and decided vocations with . an adorned, with virtue as by a retreat. Here, then, was in.sight. well-~igh prophetic. He was at once en rapport his opportunity, and he used it to the full. with his pemtents. He buoyed them up with his own . By letters Father Burke exercised but little influence, buoyancy of heart, turned their thoughts away from for he was a bad correspondent, never wrote long themselves, filled the diffident with confidence intro­ ·letters, and seldom wrote any. We could wish he had duced thoughts of heaven and aspirations after 'God in written more, and it is strange that a man of such 20 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. 21 power and zeal for souls should have thus neglected a Father Burke's fund of anecdotes, his repartees, and means of doing good which holy men and womPn have power of mimicry were remarkable, but in all there at all times abundantly employed. was nothing that could offend against charity, and in In stature Father Burke was tall and slim. His an instant he could be serious and turn his attention thick, black hair surmounted a dark, sun-stained face, to important' work. He knew well that " all things with features eloquent of strength and power: • have their season" ; that " there is a time to weep, and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn and a time to " Lines of thought upon his cheek dance " (Eccl. iii. 4). But his thoughts seemed all Did deep design and counsel speak. absorbed by love for his fellow-creatures ; and these His look composed and steady "eye Bespoke a matchless constancy." outbursts of mirth were only one means employed for this end. He possessed a joyous, pure, and noble spirit, simple, His mother had a place all to herself in his heart. unaffected, and sincere. In manner ·he was winning, "My mother, the old convent in Galway, and the fran!<. and genial, with a flow of pleasant conversation first dawnings of my vocation," he said, " are built that was wise and witty by turns. The more he. was up in my soul together : the first ' my mother,' the known the better was he loved. He was always cheerful, most intimate and endearing of all." . On his return and could not endure melancholy faces. "There is no from America, he said: "I am going to Galway to see law," he said, "that the pious should be dull. We can the best of mothers." We have seen how carefully be Sankeymonious without being Moody." Nothing she trained him as a child, how gladly she gave him could put him out of temper, and his indescribable to God ; and when he was at the height of his fame bonhomie enabled him to parry thrusts most good­ she daily said her Rosary that he might not be injured naturedly and effectively. Once on a journey he had by success, but ever retain his humility. "Never mind as fellow-passengers a Methodist minister and his wife. them, Nicholas, my son," she would exclaim, as The former began laboriously to prove that St. Patrick laudatory passages about him were read to her from the was a Protestant. Father Burke heard him out paper, " they would say the same of any blackguard patiently, and then said: "Well, well, to think I never that came round." heard of that before ! But tell me, was St. Patrick Hand in hand with love of home and parents went evef known to travel with his wife ?" His method of his love for his country. He was proud of Ireland, and conveying rebukes, too, was sweetened by his kindliness knew her history and sorrows intimately: "The master of heart. He once met a man in a train who frequently passion of my heart, after the love I have for God and produced a bottle from his pocket and drank freely my religion, is my love for Ireland," and among his from it. It was clear he would shortly become a dis­ finest lectl}res are those descriptive of her national agreeable companion, and so the next time the bottle music and poetry. r At the end of his famous panegyric of St. Patrick, after telling how Ireland had clung appeared, Father Burke said : " Your mother must ,,I have died very early, sir." The man looked at him bravely to the faith through ages of bitter persecution, with astonishment, and he continued, " for it is plain you were brought up by the bottle." Every one in the r " The History of Ireland as told in her ruins " ; " The Supernatural Life, the absorbing life of the Irish people " ; carriage laughed heartily, and the bottle was seen no " The National Music of Ireland" ; " The Exiles of Erin "; more. At the end of the journey the man thanked " The Irish People in relation to Catholicity "-these, with Father Burke, saying he had never before reached his the lectures in refutation of Fronde, are given in the volume destination sober. of Sermons and Lectures. 22 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. 23 n e thus speaks : " This glorious testimony to God and him to use fully the stores of information thus acquired. to His Christ is thine, 0 holy and venerable land of my · , His favourite secular writers were Dickens and Shakes­ ·birth and of my love ! 0 glory of earth and heaven, peare. He seemed to know the latter's best plays by t~-day thy great Apostle looks down upon thee from heart, and would delight his brethren in religion _by n~t his high seat of bliss, and his heart rejoices ; to-day the merely repeating but acting them. In prepanng his an~els of .God rejoice over thee, for the light of sanctity sermons his chief helps were the works of St. Thomas, W:hi~h still beams upon thee ; to-day thy troops of Father Segneri, and Cardinal Newman, for the last of virgm and martyr samts speak thy praises in the high whom he had a great love and reverence, though they courts of heaven. And I, 0 mother, far away from never met. He was also very fond of the. works of thy green bosom, hail thee from .afar-as the prophet Father Faber. "What a charm there is," he said, of old beholding the fair plains of the promised land­ " in everything Father Faber writes !" and proclaim this day that there is no land so fair, no In treating of Father Burke as a preacher, we must spot on earth to be compared to thee; no island rising rely on the testimony of others, for it was never our out of the wave so beautiful as thou; that neither the privilege to hear him. His preaching was the full flow sun, nor the moon, nor the stars of heaven, shine down of an apostolic soul, having persuasiveness as its chief upon anything so lovely as thee, 0 Erin !"r feature. One felt gradually drawn to a~o pt ~he Before treating of Father Burke as a preacher, some preacher's views, as the only ones compatible with minor points may be briefly noticed. By nature he truth and good sense. He went straight to a fixed end, was highly gifted. He had a very retentive memory, and all the road was a track of light. No one could a nd was able to recite the entire Psalter by heart, rarely excel him in his power of winning the assent of the using his Breviary for the offices de communi or of the conscience and convincing the judgement. Except for .dead. He possessed also a great gift for languages. his early efforts, he never used a manuscript in preparing Dominican Fathers of the Minerva · at Rome tell how a sermon, nor spent many minutes in considering h_ow he would recount the " Arabian Nights " in felicitous he would treat his subject. Given a few leadmg Latin to them during recreation. " I puzzled them thoughts, all else seemed clear. His immediate prepara­ with two Italian versions of 'the House that Jack tion was to go to confession, when possible, " simply," built,' " he once said. He was intensely musical, and as he said, " to keep himself straight " ; and so nm_ner_ous bad a resonant, sympathetic, mellow voice, which he were his discourses and so great the calls upon his time managed so well that not a word was lost in the largest that often he preached with hardly a moment's prepara­ building. For years he sang the Passion on Good tion. "On what would you wish me to preach?" he Friday most beautifully, and said it would not seem once said, just before ascending the pulpit. " 9n 'like Good Friday unless he did so. He had also a turn perseverance," was the reply, and at once he comphed for poetry, though he wrote but little, confining himself with the request. H e preferred the altar-steps to the mainly to translating the Church's hymns.z He was pulpit, as giving him more freed~m . . In speakmf?, a man of wide reading, and his strong memory enabled he never seemed in a hurry, nor Imagmed that his audience could be so. Gracefully he rolled forth his 1 Delivered in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, March 17 , sentences, then paused, and leisurely resumed his 1872 (Sermons and Lectures, p. 33). discourse, which needed this composure to do justice 2 None of these h ave been printed, and, beyond the volume of to its nobility of conception and expression. His Sermons and Lectures and the sermon. on St. Ignatius, his pnly published work is his grateful preface to Pere Monsabre's True hearers seemed to f eel the refreshing power of the stream and False Devotion (Dublin: M. H . Gill & Son). These two of thQught that rose to his lips from the deep reservoirs . .great preachers met at Ghent an·d became close friends. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. ·, Father Thomas Burke, O.P. zs

o~ his heart and" mi~d . He touched nothing that he of constant pain, of frequent preaching, but were marked did not adorn. I listened to his words " writes Miss by no striking incident. In r873, after his return from Rosa M~lholland, " as to a n~"': revelation of beauty America, he preached often in Dublin and in Cork, and ~olmess. Colour and vividness were given to also at the dedication of Armagh Cathedral, and at ~alf-hid~en truths ; dusty old facts were clothed with the opening of St. Dominic's, Newcastle-on-Tyne. extra<;>r~mary splendour ; the meanings and purposes It was proposed to make him Coadjutor Archbishop of reh~wn too~ a rich roundness of contour and filled of Trinidad, but again he escaped the dignity. Though the mmd ; w~Ile the s.elfish motives and teachings of suffering acutely from an aggravated form of hernia, the world withered . mto o_bscurity and ignominy. he worked unceas;ngly; his list of engagements Pe~ple . came away with Chnst's kingdom shining in showed one at least for every day, fully ten months t~eir hearts, and feeling as if a rare and beautiful in advance. picture had been studied, or a rich and original poem • In July, r875, he wrote during a short rest in Galway : had been read, of which the theme was old and familiar 'c I have been ailing much since January, but manage but ~~e in;tagery, the colour, the music and vigour wer~ to preach the Lent in Dublin, though always in pain, ne_w. His tone o~ rev~rence in speaking of sacred and staying in bed almost every day till evening. After thmgs, the compassiOn With which he yearned to help Easter I gave a retreat in Cork, preaching three sermons t~e needy, the fond entreaty with which he strove to a day, and that finished me. I came down to Galway wm back the errin~, the authority with which he pro­ in April, and after a month of great suffering, finding nounced and explamed the Church's doctrines, all were myself no better, went to Dublin, and was attended by remarkable. Ev~ry gesture was dramatic, and not only the three first physicians of the city. They found me the tongue an~ hRs spoke, but the eyes and limbs also, suffering from internal ulceration and inflammation so that o,r;e sa~d, If ~ were ~ eaf, I would still go to his of the mucous membrane, but had hopes of my recovery. ~ermons. ~Is beaub.f~l voice "':as a great aid, while Long and perfect rest, with proper food and medicine, Its charm gamed a umque quahty from the musical will, they say, bring me through the present crisis. I brogue. of his m_other-tongue. feel myself that, with God's help, I shall recover." But Cardmal Manmng, who said that Father Burke had his progress was slight, if any, and in January, r876, he the "grandest. ~alent a man can possess, namely, that wrote from Tallaght : " I am, they tell me, getting of . populan.zmg the?l_ogy," has left this testimony better : I don't feel it, but suppose it is all right. The to his preachmg. Wntmg after Father Burke's death life here suits me : quiet, silence, Gregorian chant ad he.says: "And now we shall no more hear that eloquent libitum, and reading. Of course prayer comes in under vmce--eloquent, because so simple, for in all he spoke each head. I preach here on festivals to a delightful for God. He remembered God and forgot himself. congregation of rustics. It does not injure me a bit." It was the eloquence not ·of study or self-manifestation His superiors, alarmed at his state, urged him to pay a but of a great soul filled with God and speaking fo; short visit to Rome. He accordingly went, but though God. The whole man spoke, and yet in the pathos he revived somewhat on the way, was for some weeks and beauty and light of what he spoke we never re­ unable to see the many friends who called upon him. membered the speaker. He concealed himself as it "Father Mulooly," he said, "is trying to keep me alive, were, and therefore moved and swayed the he'arts of but in three months I shall be under the sod." He soon those who heard him." returned to Ireland, and his answer to an invitation But to resume our narrative. The last ten years to preach shows how little his health had improved. of Father Burke's life were years of unremitting toil, " If I am able, I will preach for your poor children, Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. 27

but I must be much stronger than I am now. I am of life, but was suddenly stricken down by his dis~ase, afraid to under~ake anything, as it is a day up and and for three months confined to his room. To a fnend a day down with me at present." His doctor said who visited him, he said : " I do not remember to have to him: "Three years will be the extent of your life. spent a happier time." An operation was perf.ormed Do all ~he good you can in that time." His respites and showed him to be suffering from a long smuous from pam were few. Once he said: "I have been three ulcer. A rest at Kingstown gave him strength for a d~ys wit~out pai~ . I don't know myself or feel right journey to Galway, to assist his aged mother on _her without It. I thmk I must pray for a little." At deathbed. But his pain continued with great seventy. Christmas of thi~ year (r876) he preached a course of " Are you suffering now ? " one asked him. " Yes, sermons in D~blin, and the degree of Doctor of Divinity indeed," was the reply," it is my constant companion." v:ras sent .to him from Rome. In r877, in spite of con­ Still he wished to die in harness, and went to Cork to tmued bad health, he preached often in Dublin also at give a retreat. He gave many retreats about this time,. Kircubbin, Belfast, Achonry, Glasgow, Cork, Clonliffe, but did not preach so often in public. Drogheda, and Kilbeggan, besides giving some retreats. In July, r88o, Father Burke preached his famous He also preached at the consecration of Dr. McCabe as sermon,." St. Ignatius and the Jesuits," at Farm Street, Assistant· Bishop of Dublin. "I was in such agony London. "With great pleasure I will preach," he the whole time," he said, " that I could have thrown wrote in answering the invitation, " to do so will gratify myself from the pulpit. I felt as though I stood upon an unsatisfied desire of my heart." The Jesuit Fathers a bucket, and that the Angel of Death was about to declared that this sermon threw fresh light on the history kick it aside" ; and then he added, in his happiest vein: and work of their founder, and wisely urged its publica­ " That ren:inds me of .a tiny preacher who always stood tion. r on somethmg of the kmd to enable his flock to see him. So busy had Father Burke been in helping others, He was giving his text, ' In a little time you shall see that the church at Tallaght had been neglected. But, Me, and in a little time you shall not see Me,' when lo ! in r88z the General of the Dominicans ordered him to the botto~ fell put,. and the preacher was lost to sight." replace' " the old outhouse and barl!- " by a. pr~per Dr. Monarty, Bishop of Kerry, and a great friend building, and he at once took steps m this directwn. of Father Burke, died in the November of this year, In March of this year he wrote : " I am up to my eyes and Father Burke preached his funeral oration at in business connected with the new church and in great Killarney, and finished the year's work by delivering and constant pain, so that I have to spend more than the Advent sermons in St. Saviour's Dublin half my time in bed." Somehow but little advance . Again, in r878, he was busy pr~aching i.n Dublin, was made, and in May he again wrote: "Very badly Cork, Limerick, Galway, Newry, Youghal, Bray, does it progress ; 1 fear that, sick as I am, I must go to ~ermoy, D.rogheda, Kingscourt, and Waterford, be­ America again." However, on October the rst, the sides two discourses on Pope Pius the Ninth, .who died corner-stone of the new church was laid, and Father that y~ar. There was prospect of his being raised to Burke preached on the occasion. Though suffering the episc?pate of Galway, and priests and people alike "in every nerve and fibre except his eyebrows," as he were an.xwus to have him as their bishop, but he begged

off, saymg : " If, as a friar, I am not able to discharge I St. Ignatius and the Jesuits, a Sermon preached in the 'niy dutie.s, how much more unfit would I be to perform Church of the Jesuit Fathers, Farm Street, London, on the 31st those of a bishop ?" , bf July, 1880, by Father Thomas Burke, O.P. (Londbn, -Burns In 1879, he seemed for a time to take a fresh lease and Oates). z8 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas Burke, O.P. zg

said, he preached at the enthronement of Cardinal that he goes about preaching, I am more than astonished McCabe, also a panegyric on St. Paul of the Cross and -it is a miracle." sermons at ~undrum, Lanark, Glasgow, S~ords, Salford, and Liverpool. "Yet all the time I was with him," writes Father Proctor, O.P., " I never heard him complain once. We n~w cor_ne to the last year of his life (r883). He When seized with the pains, his features became pinched, was agam Pno: of Ta~laght, and in February was to and his whole frame convulsed, but the only word that have preach~d m Dublm on behalf of its new church, escaped his lips was the ejaculation, 'My Jesus, mercy.' but w:as ~oo I~l to do so. In April, after preaching and He was much disturbed because I would not let him say lectunng In Liverpool, he went for a short time to Rome his office. One day he appealed to the doctor and asked but returned to Tallaght in May. ' to be allowed to say it: and he prevailed, the doctor The new Dominican church at Haverstock Hill allowing him ' to say a little at a time.' When the London, was to _be opened on May 31st, and Fathe~ doctor had gone, the patient laughed at me in triumph Burke _had promised to preach on the occasion. He and said : ' Ah, you old Saxon, you thought you would d~te:mme~ to ~o so, though warned it might cost him get your own way as your countrymen have done ~Is hfe. I w~ll go even if I die on the way," he said: for so many centuries, but I did you. Give me my my Fathers. I~ England will know then that I had breviary, please, and don't argue against me again in at least the Will t~ help_them." Five times during the that sneaky way: He was too ill to joke much, but whe_n week ~f the opem~g did he occupy the pulpit, rising for a moment free from pain, would tell me a comic from his bed e~?h time to do_so. His life seemed to hang story. One day he sat up in bed and began to sing, by a thread. I have felt Ill for years," he said, " but and then said: 'Well, that is a sign I am better; I was never as I do I_J-O~. I don't think I shall get over this. never so quiet in my life as I have been during these ~e~, perhaps It IS natural that as I began my priestly days. See if I don't give a seance in honour of my life m England, I should also end it there." To one nurse before I leave for Ireland, positively the last of the. Fathers who P?inted out the great number of appearance of Father Burke.' " panes m one of the wmdows, he replied : " I tell you · He was glad to get back to Tallaght in June, for he there are not nearly as many panes in that window as in loved Ireland and wished to die there. The new church my J.?OOr body." On the Sunday in the octave of the was not progressing, and he felt this keenly. "Not a opemng_ he pr~ached ~wice, in the morning on the . farthing is coming in," he writes ; " as I feel a little conversiOn of smners, m the evening on the Blessed better I intend to make some effort to get money for Sacrar_nent. " Say a ' Hail Mary ' that I may succeed," the b~ilding." But only once was he able to leave his he said to one of the Fathers " I have not a word bed· after arriving home. A touching appeal to preach pr~pared." And after the ser~on, he added : " I felt on behalf of s,ooo starving children of Donegal had qr:tite proud t?at I could put two sentences together been made to him, and he longed to comply, but was Without _br~akmg dow~. It is just as if a ·red-hot knife so weak and racked with pain, that he felt the task an were .twrstmg about m mY'side." Yet never had he impossible one. Three times the pen fell from his pre<~:ched ~ore be<~:utifu~y . " I fear you are very ill," hand as he was about to decline ; he bethought himself ~ fnen~ said. to him. I am always ill," he replied, of the starving little ones of the poor of Jesus Christ, but hke a sick cat, I can still mew." while a voice kept saying to him, "What is one life Indeed his ~isease was among the most agonizing compared to that of five thousand?" known to medical men. " I do not know " his doctor Accordingly he undertoo~ the ser~on. _Brother said, "how he can endure it. But when' you tell me Joseph, his constant compamon, went wrth him from 30 Father Thomas Burke, O.P. Father Thomas· Burke, O.P. 31

Tallaght to Dublin, and feared he would die on the manner. As · good religious, our life should be a daily way. On arriving at St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner death. Oh, may we die · a death of perfect conformity Street, F ather Burke said to the porter : " This will to our vows ! May we die in Thee, 0 J esus, and in be my last sermon. Let me into this room and be Thee, perfectly poor, being stripped of all things ; sure _YOU send no one to me." His state of agony was chaste, by the pain and mortification of every member mamfest to all as he mounted the steps of the pulpit. of Thy ~acr e d_ Body; and above all may we die a death H e took for his text the multiplication of the loaves of obed1ence hke Thee, who wast ' obedient unto death, and fishes ; as he began to speak, a thrill passed through even the death of the Cross.' " all present, and the fascination of his tongue was felt For some days, Father Burke lingered on in great once more. " One short week," he said, " then Monday, agony. "On Sunday, July rst, the morning before fiis Tuesday, and Wednesday pass by, on Thursday the death, he received for the last time the sacraments graves open and these little ones must perish, unless of the Holy Church. · It was most touching to hear the aid be given." aspirations of love and faith, which he uttered as the " Who that was present," writes Judge O'Hagan, ciborium was uncovered. In accents that betokened " can forge t that closing scene, when, with bent and his. lively faith, he would every moment say, ' 0 broken form and faltering footstep, Father Burke my Lord and my God!' '0 my dear Lord!' And ascended the pulpit to plead the cause of the starving then turning to the Father Sub-Prior and his devoted children ? Never in the brightest days of his career children, who knelt around the bedside of their dying were his words more tender and impressive. But Father, he asked, in words of deep humility, their every feature told of the approaching end. He had pardon, as well as that of all the members of the Order, gathered together what remains of life and fire were and of all whom he might have offended. " During the left within him, to do this last act of charity and pity. " day, a faint hope comforted us that the danger might ' On the way home the carriage had to be stopped pass away, but as the shades of evening began to fall, three times owing to the severity of his pain. He we learned that the end was fast drawing near. His kept on ejaculating. "Jesus, have mercy on me !" agony increased with every stroke of the clock, his Then he said, " Say the Rosary, and I will answer as expressions of faith, hope, and charity growing stronger well as 1 can." -in proportion as his heart grew weak. About three Fresh physicians were called in, but to no avail, o'clock in the morning of Monday, July znd, rapid and death could not now be far distant. For Father knocks sounded on the doors of our cells, and a brother Burke it had no terrors. "Thank Gocl,' he said, " I . entering exclaimed-' To the Prior's cell ! ' All was have lost all physical fear of death. I feel the weight over; our Father had gone to join the angelic choir. of my sins and infirmities more than ever, and have, The consciousness of his eternal happiness calmed if possible, a greater fear of the judgement of God, our sorrow. Yet the scene was penetratingly sad, but all dread of death itself has gone. Oh, won't for there lay the remains of one whom we loved as the exchange be beautiful, won't it be lovely when a father." the end comes !" Some time before he had said : Such, in the beautiful words of a Dominican Father, · "The fervent soul is rejoiced at the approach of death. was the death of Father Burke on Monday, July z, She fears God, but loves Him still more. We should 1883, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. always live in the presence of death: we should fre­ For two days the body lay in state and was visited quently offer our lives to God jn expiation for_our sins, by thousands. The 'funeral, though honoured by a accepting death in spirit as to its time, , place, and great concourse of bishops, priests, and-- laity, was 32 Father Thomas Burke, O.P . conducted with the simplicity that Father Burke loved LIVES OF SAINTS so much. The completion of the church at Tallaght was rightly deemed the most fitting monument to his TWOPENCE EACH memory, and among the first subscribe r~ were the B 265 St. Aloysius. By Rev. C. C. Martindale, S.J. children of Donegal, for whom, when starvmg, Father 289 St. Andrew the Apostle. By Cecil Kerr. Burke had so nobly pleaded. " 10 St. Thomas Aquinas. May the life and virtues of this holy son of St. " " 246 St. Anthony of Padua. By Rev. D. Devas, O.F.M. Dominic, his humility, his spirit of penance, his zeal 17 St. Benedict. By Abbot Snow, O.S.B. for souls be reproduced in the priests of all lands ! " 36 St. Catherine of Siena. May the' lessons he so eloquently and s.o constantly 253 St. Cecilia. Virgin and Martyr. By Rev. S. A. Parker, O.S.B. taught be manifest in the lives of all ch1ldren of the " 39 St. Charles Borromeo. By M. s. B. Malins. Church ; and may this brief sketch have its humble 209 St. Glare. By Mrs. R. Balfour. share in making him better known and more truly 51 " St. Dominic. loved ! 264 St. Dunstan. By Rev. l M. Routledge. " 61 St. EJizabeth of Hungary. By Mrs. John Dillon. 69 St. Francis of Assisi. By Rev. F. Oswald, O.S.F.C. 247 St. Francis de Sales. 71 St. Francis Xavier. 74 St. George. By Rev. l W . Reeks. 220 St. Gerard Majella. By F . M. Capes. 78 St. Gregory the Great. By Rev. A . l Saxton. 82 St. Helen. By M. E. James. 91 St. Ignatius Loyola. By Rev. F . Goldie, S.J. 48 St. Jean B. M. Vianney (Cure of Ars). By Lady Herbert. 239 St. John Berchmans. By Rev. C. C. Martindale, S.J. 208 St. John Eudes. By Rev. Allan Ross. 93 St. Joan of Arc. By l B. Milburn. 112 St. Margaret Mary. 252 St. Mary Magdalen Postel. 210 st. Monica. ' 136 St. Patrick. By Mgr. Arthur Ryan. " 33 St. Peter Ganisius, S.J. By Rev. T . Crompton, S.J. " 138 St. Philip Benizi. By Lady Amabel Kerr. " 139 St. Philip Neri. By Rev. Allan Ross. -<1 1 " 291 St. Sebastian. By Very Rev. Father Procter, O.P . " 266 St. Stanislaus Kostka. By Rev. C. C. Martindale, S.J. " 267 Saints of the Mass. " 155 St. Teresa. 204 St. Teresa of Lisieux ("The Little Flower "). By Rev. Allan Published by The Catholic Truth Society, 72 Victoria Street, London, S. W . 1. " Ross. Printed s'n Ireland E-.-March, 1930 CATHOLIC TRUTH SoCIETY, 72 VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W. l